I taught university level courses in sociology and criminal justice for over 30 years but I'm retired now. Still, I'll always be a sociologist, engaging in discussions about learning and teaching sociology, commenting on current events and offering book, video and website reviews.

Ernest Becker 9: Morality is Fundamentally a Matter of Power

Yes, more Becker. Morality is also a huge topic for Emile Durkheim, the first person to actually hold a university position as a sociologist. He called sociology the science of morality. That’s the topic of another post on this blog.

I know that I’m dealing with Becker in these posts but there was a sociologist, the first bone fide European sociologist, Emile Durkheim (1857-1917), who considered sociology the science of morality. Morality is not what most people think it is. It’s not some abstract universal condition that has no relationship to reality. No, morality is fundamentally rooted in political power. This is not the place for it (I don’t think) but sometime it would be nice for you to challenge me to prove this by announcing what you think are moral precepts and defying me to show how they are connected to the material, real world. It would be especially fun if you think that morality lies exclusively in the realm of ideas.

In any case, I digress. Morality underlies all of his work, but now back to Becker and…